Kuroko no Street Artist
by pale rose fire
Summary: At first Midorima thought graffiti was just vandalism, and nothing more. But while working on an art project with Takao, putting together a survey of work by the elusive street artist known as The Shadow, Midorima begins to realize that there's more to graffiti than just letters scrawled in spray paint - and that the story these pictures are telling is hauntingly familiar.
1. Chapter 1

Art class was the bane of Midorima Shintarou's existence.

He could tolerate many things. And many people. Even insufferable people like Takao, who never shut up, or Murasakibara who was lazy and ridiculous. He could deal with grueling workouts that brought most others to their knees, or other subjects like physics that left most of his classmates pulling out their hair. But art was another thing entirely.

Part of his problem was the creative aspect. Midorima could think outside the box when he needed to. If there was a problem that needed a solution he could be creative in finding a way. And in music, he could compose his own songs for the piano that won approval even from his strict instructor. But he could not just sit down and draw, or paint, or sculpt something themed around one of those ridiculous topics his flighty hippie of an art instructor loved throwing at them, topics like, "Evanescing" or "Saturation."

Honestly, he couldn't draw, paint, or sculpt to begin with, and his attempt at making a collage had gotten him extremely low marks, that Midorima thought had just as much to do with the quality of his work as his inability to portray "Justice in Media" through cut out magazine photographs. So, as Midorima frowned at the project sheet before him, that gave him a list of options for how to complete his art class's final project, he realized that the only option that he had any hope of obtaining passing marks with, was making an art survey.

Though how he was going to be able to do that with a concept like "Story of Emotions," Midorima did not know.

He ground his teeth and snuck a glance at Takao. His teammate, Midorima was not surprised at all to see, was smiling, like he hadn't a care in the world. Like he wasn't worried at all about this project, which would count for half of their grade this term.

Honestly, he probably wasn't. Ozeki Sensei adored Takao and the nonsense he spouted. He had BS'ed his way into getting the highest marks in the class, though Midorima would admit that he did have some skill in painting with an air brush. But only half of your grade in this class came from your actual artwork, and the other half came from explaining it to their teacher. That was what Takao really excelled in, and Midorima found himself a little bit resentful of his friend for that sometimes.

Like now. Because as much as he hated to admit it, Midorima was going to need help with this project if he wanted his grade point average to remain the highest in his year when this term was over. And he was both lucky and unlucky that the best person to help him with this was his best friend.

Lucky, because he knew that Takao would be more than willing to help him, even though he could easily work solo and get an excellent score. Essentially, Takao would be carrying Midorima through this, though Midorima thought that was only fair, considering how Takao was only passing Algebra and History because of Midorima's tutoring. But he was unlucky because Takao was going to know perfectly well just how badly Midorima needed help, and was going to rub his face in it.

With a sigh, Midorima decided that he might as well get this over with. He cleared his throat to get Takao's attention, then nearly cringed when Takao immediately turned knowing eyes on him.

"Sup, Shin-chan?" he asked with a wide smirk.

"It has occurred to me that it is the team's best interest to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't get off track with this project," Midorima said stiffly. "Therefore, we'll be working together on this."

"Oh? You trust me so little, Shin-chan?" Takao elbowed him lightly in the ribs. Midorima batted at his arm to knock it away. "You're not worried that I'll drag you down with my horrible attention span? What if I get really far off track and drag you off the track with me? We'll be like a derailed train! And we'll both fail and have to sit on the bench. Is that really in the best interest of the team, Shin-chan?"

"That is what I'm joining with you to prevent," Midorima said, trying to hide how annoyed he was.

"So you're worried about me, is that it?" Takao asked hopefully.

"I'm worried for the team. It will be inconvenience for everyone if our new captain is benched for poor academics," lied Midorima.

"Well, worry not. I just remembered that I've got the highest grade in the class so far," said Takao, flashing him a dazzling smile. "I think I'll be alright on this project."

"I – you – what I mean to say is . . ." Midorima gritted his teeth.

"Of course, if we're talking about someone who needs help to keep their grade up . . . well wouldn't that be you, Shin-chan?" asked Takao devilishly.

"Don't be ridiculous. I don't need your help," Midorima said as convincingly as he could. But he was not convincing enough, apparently.

"Oh, you don't, do you?" Takao raised both his eyebrows.

"No. I don't. Like I said, I'm doing this for the best interest of the team."

Takao stared at Midorima with that horrible mischievous look in his eyes, and for a second, Midorima thought Takao was going to call his bluff again, and force him to confess that the reason he wanted to work with him was because he really needed his help badly.

But then Takao took the conversation down another route, one which Midorima honestly wasn't sure if it was better or worse.

"Liar. You just want to work with me because you want to spend more time with me."

"Don't be an imbecile."

"It's alright, Shin-chan," Takao teased. "You can admit it. Don't be shy."

"I'm not being shy you fool."

"You love me! Admit it!"

"Shut up and stop causing a scene!"

"Pfft, people are barely giving us weird glances. They're used to you being weird by now."

Midorima spluttered in outrage. "They don't stare at us because I'm weird, it's because of you!"

"Uh huh. Sure," Takao said unconvincingly.

Midorima was saved from having to respond to that by the ringing of the bell. Takao lost interest in tormenting Midorima, in favor of getting packed up and getting to practice as quickly as possible. Once he would have been content to get there simply on time, but since the third years all retired, and Takao was named the new team captain, he'd gotten a bit more responsible. He was smart enough to know that he had to be, if he wanted the second years who'd been on the bench all season and were a bit resentful of him and Midorima to follow him and accept him as their new leader.

"I've got an idea for what I want to do, and I'm ninety-percent sure that it's better than your idea if you even have one," said Takao as they made their way through the crowded hall. "So we'll be using my idea. You got time to discuss it after practice? Maybe over burgers or ramen?"

* * *

><p>"We're going to do an art survey," Takao announced around a mouthful of French fries. "An art survey of The Shadow's works."<p>

"Who?" asked Midorima, looking at the mass in Takao's mouth distastefully.

Takao, thankfully, swallowed before speaking again. "The Shadow, Shin-chan! The Shadow!"

"I don't know who that is."

"Araugh! We've been over this before! Don't you remember?" asked Takao. "I showed you his comeback piece last summer! It was his first piece of street art in like a year, and I was the first person in all of Tokyo to find it!"

Something stirred in Midorima's memory at this prompt. "Street art? You mean that weird graffiti you were all worked up about?"

"Yes! That street art!" Takao brightened. "You do remember."

Midorima stared at Takao hard. "You do realize that this project is worth half of our grade this term, don't you?"

"Uh, yeah. What's your point?"

"You want to make an art survey of graffiti? And you expect us to get a good grade off it?" Midorima demanded.

"Yes, I do expect us to get a good grade off it," said Takao, "Because The Shadow's art is freaking awesome. And because it lends itself perfectly to the theme that we have to go by. I've never known another collection of art to fit this topic better than The Shadow's art."

"You must be joking."

Takao gave him a look that surprised Midorima. One that meant he was actually starting to get a little bit annoyed, for real, not just in jest. "I'm not joking. Why do you think I'm joking?"

"Because what you're talking about is nothing more than glorified graffiti, Takao! It's not art, it's vandalism –"

"You say that like those are mutually exclusive," said Takao, his eyes narrowing just a fraction, but enough for Midorima to realize Takao was prepared to fight about this.

"Alright. It might be considered art, but it is also vandalism," said Midorima. "It's not something that should be encouraged or venerated."

"I disagree," said Takao. "Even though I don't know what venerated means. Art is all about thinking outside the box and pushing boundaries to express your creativity."

"Which doesn't mean it's alright to deface public property."

"Except that I think it is," argued Takao. "Because it's not like he's hurting anyone or anything. On the contrary, his art actually helps people."

"Like who?" challenged Midorima, not believing this for a second.

He was surprised when Takao's eyes grew even colder.

"Like me."

Midorima stared at his friend for several seconds, searching for something to say. He needed to back away from this issue, he realized. He hadn't realized Takao felt so strongly about this, or why, but pushing this issue any further would be a mistake. He didn't care as much about being right as he did about not pushing away his friend right now, and not just because he didn't want to end up working on this project alone.

Takao seemed to read his thoughts, or at least his expression, as Midorima was floundering for something to say. Then, with the same consideration he usually used during the rare occasions where things got tense between the two of them, he let Midorima off the hook, offering what was akin to an olive branch.

"You know how when you're feeling down sometimes, you'll hear a sad song and like identify with it? And maybe it doesn't make you feel any better right then, but at the same time, you don't want to feel better? Because something crappy happened and you need to feel bad for awhile before you feel better? But at the same time, knowing someone else felt the way you're feeling now makes you feel like you're not so alone?" Takao said, not quite looking at Midorima. "Well, art can be like that too."

"I see," said Midorima, even though he actually didn't.

"No you don't." Takao saw right through him.

"You're right," Midorima confessed. "I don't. But . . . maybe I will see. Since your ideas, thus far, have produced reasonably adequate results in that class, I'll trust that you know what you're doing now. We can do this project your way."

And maybe Takao's smile was a little strained, but Midorima could tell that he was genuinely pleased. He was always happy to get his own way when dealing with Midorima.

"Well," he said, wadding up his burger wrapper and stuffing it into his empty fry carton, "Let's get started."

* * *

><p>Important Announcement!<p>

This fic is part of a collaboration I'm doing with the talented artist yellowoctopus333, who is doing a digital painting of every piece of street art that is mentioned in this fic. We've been working together, planning out each picture for this story, and it's because of her that this fic is being written. It's a story that I've been wanting to tell for like a year, but I never thought that I would actually be able to do it, because the artwork mentioned in this fic is such an important part of the story, and I can't draw or paint. But then Yellowoctopus333 painted the RimFire emblem from my fic "RimFire," and gave me permission to use it as cover art for that fic, and we got to talking, and everything came together so well that I'm still amazed.

So make sure you check out the illustrations that go with this fic on DeviantArt. There are links to them in my profile. Yellowoctopus333 has currently posted two of the pictures, and I've written microfics about what was going on with Kuroko when he painted each one. The microfics are being posted exclusively alongside those pictures, so that's the only place you'll be able to read them. So please make sure you check them out!


	2. Chapter 2

"I first saw one of The Shadow's pictures when I was playing street ball with some of my middle school teammates," said Takao as they walked up the stairs to his family's apartment. "I made a comment about how I thought it was cool. And someone walking by heard what I said."

"And he didn't think you were a young hooligan in the making for appreciating vandalism?"

"Nope," said Takao, with his usual playful smirk. "He had come to that park for the sole purpose of taking a picture of that mural. See, that's something you do when you follow a street artist's work. Like, you know how if you're a fan of some yuppie artist, you go to their shows whenever they're in a gallery or a museum? Well, when you're a fan of a street artist, you go to the site of their artwork."

"And how exactly does one know where to find those?" Midorima wondered out loud.

"Internet. Duh," said Takao. "There are lots of sites on street art, many just for specific cities. There are tons for Tokyo alone, some even just for certain districts. When you find a new piece of graffiti by one of your favorite artists, you take a picture and post it online, with the location. That's how other people know where to find it. But anywayz, the guy who'd come to take a picture of The Shadow's mural at the park where I was playing took the time to tell me a few things about The Shadow and how awesome he is. Hi Mom! I'm home!"

Takao's mother smiled at her son. "Welcome home, Kazunari. And hello again, Midorima-kun."

"Sorry for intruding," Midorima said politely before following Takao to his room.

The first time Midorima had seen Takao's room, he had been surprised. Given what he knew about Takao, he'd expected it to look like a disaster zone. Instead, everything was surprisingly neat and ordered, if a little cluttered. Now Takao jumped up on his bed and pulled a photo album off the shelf above it. The motion jarred several of his other albums, sending them tumbling down onto his bed.

"Oops!"

Midorima picked up one labeled "Middle School, Year 3," and opened it. A condescending smirk crossed his face at the sight of not just photographs, but pieces of construction paper cut into wild shapes, and brightly colored words penned in ink and markers between the pictures.

"You scrapbook?"

"Shut up," said Takao, snatching the album back quickly and replacing it on his shelf with the others.

Another album caught Midorima's eye. One labeled "Shuutoku Basketball Team: First Year." He picked that one up off the bed and started to open it to the first page, only to have it quickly snatched away.

"That is not the one we're here for," said Takao, shoving another album into Midorima's hands. "This is. Most of the pictures I've got of The Shadow's art are in here."

"Most?" asked Midorima.

"Yeah. One of them's in another album," said Takao.

"Why?" Midorima asked.

"Because reasons," said Takao. "Now stop stalling and take a looksie! Behold the glory that is The Shadow's street art!"

Midorima opened the album to the first page. He studied the picture, then looked back up at Takao, nonplussed. "Am I supposed to be impressed by this?"

Takao dropped down to sit on his bed and scowled at Midorima. "That, I will have you know, is the piece of art that first made The Shadow famous."

"It's a simplistic bird," Midorima said. "The kind any child could draw. There's nothing special about it."

"What's special about it is where it's painted," explained Takao. "See, that building is right in front of a police station. And trying to tag that building is like . . . well, like a dare, I guess. But it's hard as heck to do, because the police are constantly watching it. Until The Shadow, no one managed to spray paint anything complete on it. Not even on the sides or the back of the building. But one day out of the blue, The Shadow tagged the front of the building, right in full view of the police station's front windows, in broad daylight, with that huge blue bird, with that speech bubble saying 'I'm Shadow.' No one knows how he did it. The bird was at least a meter tall, and the full picture was several meters wide if you count the speech bubble.

"But after that he was instantly famous," Takao continued. "The police got the picture down as quickly as they could. They scrubbed it off by noon the next day, but enough pictures had been taken of it to immortalize it. And after that, The Shadow was famous. You know something's his work because he always uses that bird as his signature. Turn the page."

Midorima gave him a look that let him know what he thought of being ordered around, but in the end, he really didn't have any reason not to listen to that order. He did need to see what was on the next page eventually. So he turned the page.

The next picture was of a crowd of stick figures, topped with bright yellow smiley faces or light grey frowny faces. Midorima immediately saw that the grey frowny faced stick figures formed a pattern, spelling out the word "ALONE." And in the center of the O, the only place left empty in the whole painting, was the same blue bird from the first picture – The Shadow's signature.

"That one's called 'Alone In The Crowd,' or sometimes just 'Alone,'" Takao informed him. "It's one of the few pieces of his older work that's still around, probably because it would be a lot of trouble to get down. It's painted on the wall of a subway, behind the train tracks, pretty high off the ground. He would have needed a ladder to get as high as he painted it. Or some kind of complicated ceiling rig, like they'd use in a spy movie. But one's just as likely as the other. I don't know how you get a ladder through the subway without anyone stopping you."

"Perhaps he went at night, when no one was around," suggested Midorima.

"Not according to other street art fans. They say that one appeared in the middle of the day, allegedly in the early afternoon," Takao said. "Not that I was keeping track of it at the time. I wasn't one of his fans until like a year after his first happy phase started, so I wasn't following his art back then."

"First happy phase?"

"Yeah. You'll see what I mean soon," said Takao. "Check out the next one."

Midorima turned the page again. This time the canvas was another brick wall, and most of the picture was made up of randomly sprayed blotches of brightly colored paint. In the center of the picture, however, devoid of paint and outlined in light blue, was the silhouette of a child. And written above it, in letters that were a little on the hard side to read, was the word "iNViSiBLE." For some reason, all the letters were capitalized except for the I's. Midorima wasn't sure why, but found himself agreeing with the artist's decision to do that. It fit, somehow.

And as much as he hated to admit it, he was starting to see where Takao was coming from in his endorsement of street art. Or at least this particular street artist.

Midorima knew what it was like to be lonely. There were only a few times in his life that he'd ever fit in anywhere. Most of his childhood had been spent alone because of his . . . unusual interests and tendencies. So, the artist's decision to use the silhouette of a child struck a chord with him, and fostered a sense of familiarity.

The next picture made Midorima feel an even greater appreciation of The Shadow's work. Not that he would admit it to Takao. But if the way Takao was smirking about how Midorima had turned the page without being prompted was anything to go by, Takao knew anyway.

"That one, as you can probably guess, is called 'No One Sees What's Inside.' 'No One Sees' for short. Like it, Shin-chan?"

Midorima stared down at the picture, drinking in the details. This piece of The Shadow's street art was painted on a cement wall that had been subjected to many taggers. Fragments of the other artists' works were caught in the photograph of The Shadow's art, which Midorima thought was his best one yet. The words "No One Sees" were arced over a picture of a blue eye, while underneath the words "What's Inside" were curled in a reverse arc, mirroring the layout of the text from the top. And inside the eye was The Shadow's signature.

"It's not completely horrible," said Midorima grudgingly.

"Hey Mikey, he likes it!"

"What are you babbling about now?"

"Nothing," Takao said. "But you do like it, don't you?"

"I never said any such thing."

"You didn't have to. I can tell."

"Hmph. "

"Those four pictures are what people refer to as his Alone Phase," said Takao. "After 'No One Sees' something happened that changed The Shadow's life forever."

Midorima raised an eyebrow in question.

"Turn the page and see for yourself," Takao said. "You know what they say. A picture's worth a thousand words."

* * *

><p>I forgot to mention it last chapter, but this fic is set in the same universe as my oneshot "Kuroko no Graffiti Artist" from my oneshot collection "A Different Side Of Me."<p>

Don't forget to check out the art side of this story on yellowoctopus333's DeviantArt page. She's doing a great job telling a story just in pictures, plus that's the only place you can read the microfics about Kuroko actually creating each piece of street art and what he was going through at the time. She just uploaded the fourth picture, "No One Sees What's Inside" yesterday!


	3. Chapter 3

Midorima stared at the picture on the next page of the album for a long moment, then slowly raised his eyes to meet Takao's.

"Takao?"

"Yeah, Shin-chan?"

"Did you take this picture under water?" he asked. "The quality is appalling."

Takao frowned. "It's not that ba –"

"Yes it is. Why is the quality of this one so horrible when the others were perfectly adequate?" demanded Midorima.

Takao muttered something under his breath.

"What did you say?"

"I said I didn't take the other pictures. I ordered them off a website," said Takao. "I told you, most of The Shadow's oldest works aren't around anymore. They got scrubbed off or painted over. Of those first four, "Alone In The Crowd" is the only one that's still around."

Well, that explained why the quality of the photographs had noticeably deteriorated in just one page. Though that did beg another question.

"How can you be that horrible a photographer?" demanded Midorima.

"I'm not _that_ bad."

"I can't even tell what this picture is supposed to be of."

Takao huffed. "Then you should change your glasses prescription."

"My vision is perfectly fine as long as I'm wearing by glasses," said Midorima. "I can read the caption perfectly fine. Therefore, it's clear the problem lies with your photography skills."

"I did the best I could," said Takao, suddenly cheerful again. "I've got the hawkeye, not the shutterbug's eyes."

Midorima sighed. "You used your camera phone, didn't you?"

"Yes I did," admitted Takao. "Why?"

"The quality of picture you can get on your old model can only be mediocre at best. Even a skilled photographer can only do so much without a good camera."

"Maybe we can borrow one from the school," suggested Takao. "The library has some that you can check out, I think. They're probably not top notch, but they're better than the cameras on either of our phones. We could get online and buy copies of all the other pictures we need, but I think sensei would like it better if we took as many pictures as we could ourselves."

"Probably," Midorima agreed. "But there's no need to borrow a camera from the library. My father has a good one that I'm sure he'll let us borrow. I take it you know where all the graffiti we need to photograph is?"

"Yep!" Takao said, brightening again. "Most of the street art from his first happy phase is still around. The Shadow's basketball themed art was mostly left up because it was good enough that it looked like it had been professionally done. And it was a deterrent to other taggers."

"How so?" asked Midorima.

"There's an unwritten code for street artists," said Takao. "If someone achieves the level of anonymous fame that The Shadow does, it's bad form to paint over their work. Do that and other street artists will hunt down everything you've ever painted and mark it out, as well as all your future works. And switching your tagger's sign won't help you either. Your art style is like your handwriting. People can recognize it easily enough."

Takao seemed to know an awful lot about this. Midorima wondered if he engaged in graffiti himself, but decided not to ask. It would only encourage him.

"You sure seem to know a lot about this," Midorima said instead.

Takao grinned innocently. "Do I?"

Yes, Takao definitely was into tagging. Midorima knew it for a fact now.

He decided to change the subject.

"Well, at least you know enough to take us to all these places," he said. "I expect you to make a list of all the ones you think should be included in our survey, and give the list to me. Then I'll work out the most practical schedule for us to photograph them."

"Nope!"

"What?"

"I said 'Nope!'" repeated Takao.

"And why not?" asked Midorima, realizing he was going to regret asking.

"Because then you won't get the experience of seeing them in chronological order," said Takao. "How could I deny you that?"

"I don't care about seeing them in chronological order," said Midorima. "I care about completing our assignment."

"Don't worry about the assignment. We'll get it done."

"Takao –"

"Art is meant to be experienced," Takao said. "You don't watch the middle of a play first, or read the first line of a poem last. We're going to visit The Shadow's art in order, and that's final."

Midorima scowled.

"Now, come on."

"What? Where are we going?"

"To get your dad's camera. Then to go see this one in person." Takao tapped the overly blurry photograph to indicate what he meant.

"It's getting late, Takao. I don't think it's a good idea to go hunting down street art after dark. Not to mention the lighting won't be good," said Midorima.

"Oh, no need to worry about that," said Takao impishly. "We're going to an art museum."

* * *

><p>After borrowing a camera from Midorima's father, Takao took them to a small modern art museum. Midorima had never been there, despite it being relatively close to his house. Admission was cheap to begin with, and they got a student discount which made it even better, so Midorima decided to return at a later date, when he had more time to look around, and no obnoxious friend making annoying commentary.<p>

"This way, Shin-chan! Over here," said Takao, trying to lead him by the hand.

Midorima pulled his hand away and gave him an annoyed look. "Why is a piece of street art in an art museum? And how? Surely no one would knock down a wall just to preserve some graffiti."

"Not all street art is painted on walls, Shin-chan," said Takao, infuriatingly patient, as though he was talking to an idiot. He started walking, without trying to drag Midorima behind him this time, though Midorima had little choice but to follow anyway, since Takao presumably knew where he was going. "It can also be on sidewalks, or windows, posters or billboards. Or fences."

"Fences?" asked Midorima doubtfully.

"Not those screen fences that you're probably thinking of," said Takao. "I mean like the ones made of plywood that they use to fence off construction sites. That's what this one was. I don't think The Shadow knew that the construction site that fence was blocking off was going to be an art museum. This very art museum, in fact. But when the museum was finished, it had the construction company take down the fence very carefully, and saved The Shadow's artwork. Best business move they ever made . . . well, maybe deciding to sell Shadow Bird plushies in the gift shop was the best business move they ever made. Wait, no, they would have never thought to sell stuffed Shadow Birds if they hadn't saved The Shadow's street art on their fence, and brought it into their collection. So yes, that was the best business move they ever made. And it's their biggest draw, no pun intended. And here we are."

They had come to a large round room that seemed to house the museum's better pieces. Or at least the pieces that the museum considered better. This room was a little nicer than the other rooms Midorima and Takao had walked through to get here. None of the rooms had been shabby, but this one had higher ceilings and softer lighting. The art was spaced far apart on the walls at equal intervals. Directly across from the entrance, so that it was the first piece anyone entering the room saw, was the painting by The Shadow.

The Shadow and someone else, Midorima realized.

He took it in as he walked toward it. Like Takao said, it had been painted on plywood, so Midorima had been expecting that. What he had not been expecting was to see another tagger's sign on it, right beside The Shadow's. Yesterday, he wouldn't have even recognized it as a tagger's sign, but now he could tell what it was without even having to be told. It was an orange flame. A very happy orange flame, outlined in black and painted with a grinning little face. An orange arrow was sprayed next to it, with the words, "hi, i'm spaRk."

Right next to it was the blue Shadow bird, and beside him were the words, "i MADE A FRiEND."

Above them was their actual art. Three words painted in orange.

bASKETBALL

fRiENDS

fOREVER

The first letter of each word, it was clear to see, had been done by Spark. Aside from being painted in the same scrawling lowercase letters that Spark had used to introduce his signature, they seemed more raw, like the artist was new to spray paint, and wasn't quite confident in what he was doing.

The rest of the letters had clearly been done by The Shadow. They were in all caps, except for the I's which The Shadow always seemed to paint lowercase, and they were done in a bold, block-like style with very thick lines.

And beneath them, to the left of Spark, was a basketball. Probably painted by The Shadow, Midorima thought. It was perfectly round, and detailed with thin, neat lines.

And this piece spoke to Midorima, just like the other pieces of The Shadow's art that he had seen. Or maybe because he'd seen them. Would he have felt so much for The Shadow if he'd seen this painting without knowing the context of it?

Probably not, Midorima admitted. He wasn't exactly the kind of person who appreciated emotions and bonds of friendship. At least not when he couldn't empathize with them. But after seeing The Shadow's loneliness in his earlier artwork and empathizing with that, seeing that he had made a friend made Midorima feel . . . happy. Happy for him, the Shadow. And just . . . happy in general, he guessed.

He wouldn't admit it, but Takao had probably been right. He would probably appreciate all of The Shadow's artwork more if he saw it in order.

"Hurry and take a picture," said Takao urgently. "Hurry. Before someone comes."

"What?"

"There's a no photography rule," said Takao. "And it's unusual for this room to be unguarded. I thought I was going to have to distract whoever was here while you took the picture but you're in luck. So hurry up and take a picture."

Normally, Midorima was opposed to rule breaking, but this was for a good cause. And the good cause was his grade. He quickly set to getting his father's camera out of his bag. Out the corner of his eye, he saw Takao tense and look toward the door.

"Crap, someone's coming. Hurry!"

"I am hurrying!"

"Hurry faster!"

"Why didn't you tell me to begin with that there was a no photography policy? Then I could have taken the picture as soon as I saw the room was clear," griped Midorima.

"You could have. But you wouldn't have appreciated it as much. Hurry, Shin-chan!"

It was already too late, Midorima realized. He could hear footsteps in the hall, just outside the room's entrance. They would have to go with Takao's original plan of Takao distracting the attendant, while Midorima took a picture, and hope they weren't caught. Midorima didn't want to get banned from here. He wanted to return at a later date.

He hid the camera under his coat, right before the person in the hall entered.

Then he got a look at the person and realized that hiding his camera probably hadn't been necessary. This person wasn't a security guard or art museum attendant. He probably wasn't even associated with the museum at all. Because for one, he was a teenager, around the same age as Midorima and Takao. And for another, he was dressed like Midorima and Takao, still wearing a jacket like he'd just come in from outside. Not like someone who worked here part time, who would have taken their coat off before making rounds through the galleries.

The teenager had bright orange hair and was smiling broadly. Or at least he was until he caught sight of Midorima and Takao. Then he froze, and his smile was replaced by a look of surprise.

Midorima blinked, and had just started to wonder about the orange haired teen's reaction when beside him, Takao started spluttering in surprise.

"You – you're . . ."

Midorima looked at his friend, concerned. He'd heard Takao sound surprised before, but this was different. There was something in his tone now that was worried and strained. And this orange haired stranger was the cause of it.

He turned his gaze back to the other teen sharply, just in time to see him tear his gaze away from Midorima to look at Takao in confusion. Then Midorima realized that this guy didn't know Takao. He hadn't even seen Takao until Takao started spluttering. Which meant that his startled reaction . . . had been in response to seeing Midorima.

The surprise of eliciting that kind of reaction from a total stranger was just starting to settle in when Midorima received another shock. One that nearly gave him a heart attack.

Because someone else, who Midorima hadn't even realized was in the room spoke up, right in front of Midorima, as though he'd appeared there from out of thin air.

"Hello, Midorima-kun."

* * *

><p>I wonder who that could be . . . lol<p>

The art described in this chapter is up on yellowoctopus333's DeviantArt page. The link's in my profile, so make sure to check it out!


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